Freshwater fishing

All freshwater anglers must hold an angling licence issued by the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture and must purchase a licence before they fish anywhere on the Island's inland waters. Licences are available for periods of a season, a week or a day (season only for coarse fish).

The Inland Fisheries Regulations 2017 can be found on our Legislation, Policy and Enforcement page.

A Code of Conduct is available for anglers, giving advice and guidance on the regulations. Copies are available in the downloadable documents section of this page, or please contact the Fisheries Directorate using the details provided below.

To fish any of the specified 6 reservoirs for rainbow trout and trout, anglers must hold a Reservoir Licence or a Concessionary Reservoir Licence. The 6 reservoirs are:

• Clypse
• Kerrowdhoo
• Cringle
• Ballure
• Sulby
• West Baldwin

Please note that, due to a routine inspection of Ballure dam by Manx Utilities this reservoir will not be stocked this year (2019) as the dam will be completely drained. Anglers will still be welcome to fish Ballure Reservoir for brown trout and over-wintered rainbows, and, to minimise impact on anglers based in the north of the Island, all rainbow trout normally destined for Ballure will be released into Sulby Reservoir this season

An Other Waters Licence is required for fishing any other inland water for salmon, migratory trout, trout, rainbow trout and eels, and a Coarse Fish Licence is required for fishing for coarse fish in any private or commercial coarse fishery or in Eairy Dam.

Eairy Dam and Block Eary are no longer classed as reservoirs and can be fished with an Other Waters Licence. Eairy Dam can be fished for coarse fish with a Coarse Fish Licence.